This proposed Multipurpose Arthritis Center is designed to improve the care of patients with arthritis in South Carolina and the southeast by the expansion and coordination of the education and training of professionals and paraprofessionals: by research into the initiating events of selected rheumatic disorders, their early detection and pathogenesis; and by the creation of community-focused programs to improve and coordinate both patient care at the Medical University and its affiliated hospitals, and the referral patterns of care in the state and the region. The Center, as proposed, will: 1) consolidate and coordinate efforts of several disciplines into a team approach to care and training and will integrate this coordinated approach into the formal training of professionals and paraprofessionals at the undergraduate and graduate level; 2) design and implement a fexible data acquisition system; 3) monitor process, outcome and cost of arthritis care to identify favorable factors for further development; 4) apply selected microvascular connective tissue, and immunologic measurements to the early detection and prognostication of selected rheumatic syndromes and 5) develop a cytogenetic screening capability to define the role of chromosome abnormalities in rheumatic disease.